Date: Tuesday 20 September 2022

Trajectory:  Paso de la Patria – Roque Saenz Peña

Distance covered: 260 km

Managed to make contact with Catalina of the the Animal Reserve in Paso de la Patria, but had to wait as she was held up in traffic. Worth waiting, though and by 09.30 I was at the Centre.

Very interesting visit, and Catalina took me through the cages and compounds where they are looking after damaged and rescued animals. Nearby is a separate re-wilding section which quite rightly I didn’t see – this is for animals considered candidates for re-releasing, who are kept out of sight of humans.

I did however use my telephoto lens to snap an endangered red macaw in the rewilding compound. I don’t think I’ve caused any damage as I was a very long way away.

One of the animals I did see in the rescue section was an elderly jaguar, blind in one eye, and living out her days in peace and comfort. 

I walked a trail here and saw some indigenous but rare trees, all marked with name and species, and a few birds: from here my bird of the day, a greater ani (I think!). [Ed: it was a smooth billed ani, the smaller one].

The trail had a few ‘thoughts’, too – this one from Atahualpa Yupanqui.

Another appropriate thought from the Centre grounds ….

… where Catalina was showing a group of five-year-olds around. Hopefully the seeds of their visit will germinate.

I also saw oranges everywhere – or perhaps they were lemons – it’s hard to tell up here.

Visit over, I drove on to Roque Saenz Peña but my satnav tried to take me somewhere else and I had a fight to get back on the road. I won – I simply turned it off. The drive was short and uneventful, but I did stop to see a southern tamandua (aka lesser anteater) who had also lost a fight with a motor vehicle. These are beautiful animals, and roadkill like this is always distressing but I like to record what I see. I have however blurred some of the injuries).

Got to Roque Saenz Peña about 17.00. I had decided to treat myself to a little luxury as some uncertain days and nights lie ahead. My hotel of choice was full, but the second choice, just as good and half the price had one bed left so I grabbed it. 

Tomorrow on to an alarmingly named rendezvous with Luis Dellamea at Paso del Infierno, and the beginning of a new adventure.

Date: Monday 19 September 2022

Trajectory:  Ituzaingo – Paso de la Patria

Distance covered: 260 km (with detours)

The storm continued all night, with lightning flashes and thunder rolls, the rain sounding heavy on the metal roof of my hotel room.  Got up to a wet world … 

… and an indifferent breakfast (with undrinkable coffee), so headed to the nearest service station which was an ACA but not of the modern kind – very run down, and no wifi.

But they still had the 5% ACA fuel discount, and the coffee, if slow in coming, was excellent.

Drove all morning through dark, wet highways to my stop for the night. Not the weather for birding; it rained hard pretty much all the way. I had arranged to go to the Maned Wolf Centre in Paso de la Patria (in season a sandy beach holiday resort, but not today!). But the Centre was closed – I’m trying to arrange a visit for tomorrow. 

Beer and luncheon on arrival in Paso de la Patria (one of the toughest milanesas de carne for a long time) and found my cabin for the night at Cabañas Belen Efrata. A huge, sprawling and very comfortable cabin with a lived in look I approve of.

The owner, Marcelo, is on the same Provincial Tourism committee as Alejandra, who made the booking for me – an excellent overnighter for an excellent price.

Full kitchen facilities so for supper I made a packet soup with crackers and an apple. Wifi was iffy (where isn’t it?) but for once I was able to piggy back off my phone. Finally up to date with the blogging, but anticipate problems again as I hit the Chaco.

Finally, my bird of the day, shot from the car through a gap in the clouds  – a golden-breasted woodpecker perched on a post boy the side of the road.

Date: ~Sunday 18 September 2022

Trajectory:  Don Luis – Ituzaingo

Distance covered: ± 60 km

Early to bed last night, after another splendid meal. 

After a six o’clock breakfast we drove back to civilisation, and then made our way to Bahía Caraya where we had intended to go on a boat journey on the river/lake and through the marshland. 

But it was not to be. The water was very rough and it would have been uncomfortable and probably unsafe …

… so with Horacio Matarrasso, who had joined us with an Australian birder, we worked our way through the forest.

‘Caraya’ means howler monkey, and we saw plenty of them: some thoughtful …

… and some more aggressive. Rightly is they called ‘howler’ monkeys.

Plenty of time to socialise over mate with a good guy whose name I never got – but I did like the way he walked around with his mate and thermos …. it’s a very Argentine thing.

And I was impressed by his collection of knives/facones, all super sharp. Knives seems to be all a thing in Corrientes Province.

Then back to Casa Bonita to catch up on blog, etc. I had just checked in when the heavens opened, and I found myself hoping Ale and Cepi would get back on the trails where the sand would be changing to mud. But with a Hilux I’m sure they will have been OK.

Bird of the day – a white-browed meadowlark, seen on the road between Don Luis and Ituzaingo.

My worst experience of the trip so far was to follow: I went from my room in the hotel to the car to get some stuff and the wind blew the hotel door closed with my keys [and more importantly my phone] inside. I am the only person in the hotel and being Sunday there was no resident staff (it’s a strange sort of hotel altogether). For a while I didn’t know what to do. Ingenuity won the day; by enquiring at various houses in the street I was able to find someone with the hotel owner’s telephone number and all was OK. But not the best way to spend three hours on a stormy afternoon!

Spent the rest of the day getting blogs, etc. up to date, now that I have wifi again. Tomorrow heading west again towards Chaco and will sleep outside Resistencia.

Date: Friday 16 September 2022

Trajectory:  Ituzaingo – Don Luis

Distance covered: ±60 km

Breakfast in Casa Bonita and then met Alejandra at 09.00. 

First we went to visit the bird centre she manages in Ituzaingo, an imaginative and well laid out project. There I saw lots of photos of birds I would like to see, but realistically knew I would only see a few. `With luck!

I spent some time with Ale at the Bird Centre, planning the next couple of days. She is high up in local tourism circles and set up a number of future stays and attendances for me.

I then went with Arturo, one of the guides at the centre, to Santa María – a nearby reserve with boardwalks and an observation tower. A nice visit and an informative guide, but sadly low on birds …

… as happens from time to time. I particularly liked the sentiments expressed on this sign: rough translation “although you may not see them these grasslands have many inhabitants’.

After lunch I met Alejandra again and [slowly] we drove out to her lodge San Luis (see the red dot in the map above). A 38 km drive through rough tracks, mainly sand and wetland embankments, eight separate barred gates and a lot of birds.

One of those was the Iberá seedeater, only recently discovered and endemic to the area. An obvious candidate for my bird of the day. 

The site of Don Luis is quite wonderful, with its buildings scattered wide across a large area. I was assigned to a cabin called Tyto alba 1, which fittingly had a nesting box inhabited by a barn owl.

As the sun was setting it was time for a cold beer and then supper ( a local fish called ‘boga’, as we planned tomorrow’s activities.

To bed, happy and with several lifers in the bag.

Date: Tuesday 13 September 2022

Trajectory:  Mburucuyá – Loreto

Distance covered: 130 km

Left my cabin home at Mburucuyá after two comfortable nights …

… at about 08.00 and had a very leisurely drive to Loreto. I was a bit birded out today and decided on a quiet day and a novel to relax with. Thank goodness for the KIndle Mimi gave me to replace the one I left in a BA remise. 

Although today was to be a non-birding day I did need a bird of the day, so snapped this great egret as I was leaving Mburucuyá.

On arrival in Loreto I went to the Tourist Information to locate my new cabaña (the electricity was down in the whole town). I found a little wildlife park there:

… and statues through the town to this guitar hero.

I never researched his story, because it was time for a beer …

… which kimd of segued into a great lunch of chicken and green pasta. I like the polystyrene coolers for the beer and bought myself one as a souvenir.

Then to my new cabaña, not at all unlike the other one but much cheaper, although without cooking facilities.

Tomorrow I hope to meet my friend Horacio who is starting up an eco-lodge near here.

Date: Monday 12 September 2022

Trajectory:  Mburucuyá

Distance covered: 60 km

Early breakfast of coffee and biscuits and off to the Mburucuyá National Park, some 22 miles away. The last part was eleven kilometres of sandy track, and I remembered on my previous stormy visit how lucky I was to get away through the mud.

I had a choice of paths and chose the Yatay Trail, a seven kilometre walk through different kinds of vegetation.

I was completely alone in the park (it isn’t easy to get to) and had a great sense of space …

… seeing the odd deer …

… and learning about animal tracks

There were a number of black vultures at the end of the trail, which for some irreverent reason reminded my of Disney’s ‘Jungle Book’.

But my bird of the day was the masked gnatcatcher, whom I watched as they performed their courtship rituals.

Then back to my new home for two nights, where I cooked for the first time in weeks.

Spent the rest of the day reading and catching up with emails. Tomorrow I return to Iberá on the western side, from the Loreto Portal, where I’m meeting an old friend from San Martín de los Andes.

Date: Sunday 11 September 2022

Trajectory:  Mercedes – Mburucuyá

Distance covered: 220 km (with side trips)

Left Mercedes hotel after miserable breakfast and undrinkable coffee – for what I paid I expected better. Hotel curious for staircase (no lift) with steps whose height and spacing seem to have been designed to fail to meet human expectations, so going up and down was a most laborious and disconcerting affair.

First stop of the day was supposed to be the urban reserve Aka Pita, which took forever to find – Mercedes could work on its Tourist information. Or maybe the reason it was unsigned is that it was closed today, for no reason the custodian could give.

I drove on, and found a jewel – completely unmentioned by the Tourist Office. It seems that the Gaucho Gil, a C19th Century Robin Hood like religious folk hero was probably born near here and most definitely died and is buried here. More on my Facebook page. Here a statue:

…his place in the Mercedes City cemetery …

… and the entrance to his sanctuary/shrine, a few miles outside the city.

It was a shortish drive to Mburucuyú, shorter perhaps than the time it took for me to learn to say it. I was stopped by Gendarmes and asked where `I was going. I slobbered out Mumburoocooyoocoo a few times and finally had to spell it out for them. I then had a brief pronunciation lesson from three gendarme teachers and spend the next twenty minutes repeating over and over again

As I approached the town I saw crowds of people at another religious/folk festival, this one involving horsey activities. All of the gauchos, man and women, had put on their best finery: the older men, competing in gaucho skills and dressage …

… the younger men, sporting a mixture of traditional gaucho and modern style gear …

… and fine ladies on fine horses, in their best gaucho chic.

I stopped and watched for a while, impressed by the high level of horseriding skills, and finally entered Mburucuyá, the home of chamamé.

Almost forgot my bird of the day – cattle egrets, doing what they do:

Tomorrow I’ll visit the nearby Mburucuyá  National Park.